By CONNIE NOLEN / Community Columnist

Wilder’s “Our Town,” a play that my students are reading, demanded expansion this year. The play features a wedding. “Our Town” weddings have grown in my classroom to include a stained glass backdrop, bridal veils, bowties for the groom and a lovely candle in the shape of a wedding cake.

This year, we needed more. We needed to go bigger. Theater teacher Jamie Stephenson and her stagecraft students created a wedding venue in our PHS auditorium. A white, vine-covered arch, pews, flowers and a collection of wedding dresses to choose from allowed each class to create its own unique wedding. I showed the class the JK Wedding Dance Youtube.com viral video of a real wedding where the bridal party dances into the church to Chris Brown’s “Forever.” I invited my students to create their own dances down the aisle.

First and second period were prepared. Grooms arrived in their own dapper ensembles complete with neckties. Third period brought their own music — a Romanian break-up song that they used for their dancing exits. Someone even smuggled in a “just married” cookie cake. Fourth period, some class members who are yearbook staffers went for cameras. Wedding pictures are not a luxury; memories are necessary.

The final act of the play is low key. We return to the classroom to finish. Throughout its staging, Wilder’s continual reminders that we’re taking part in a play echo Shakespeare’s lines, “All the world’s a stage/And all the men and women merely players.”

“Our Town” focuses on theme or underlying meaning — truths about life that the playwright shares through the power of story. If our lives are a play, as Shakespeare suggests, what is within our control?

We may not always select our characters or plots, but we do choose our underlying meaning. We choose to be positive or negative, constructive or destructive, part of the problem or part of the solution, responsible community members or casters of blame. If I am responsible, I am empowered as a change maker. If I choose to blame, I am a victim — powerless to make changes or improvements.

Wilder’s theme is clear: Appreciate life, have some fun and be brave enough to dance uniquely down the aisle. Accept the characters and plots you’re dealt when those details are out of your control. Finally, remember the underlying meaning, the truth about life. Choose your theme wisely.

Connie Nolen can be reached by email at CNolen@Shelbyed.k12.al.us.